getrunken

Getrunken is the past participle of the German verb trinken (to drink). It is used to form the perfect tenses with the auxiliary haben, as in ich habe getrunken or er hat getrunken. It can also appear in the pluperfect as ich hatte getrunken, and in other perfect constructions when the action of drinking is the focus.

In standard German, getrunken is not typically used to describe intoxication; that sense is more commonly conveyed by descriptors like betrunken or betrinken. Getrunken primarily denotes the act of drinking or something that has already been consumed. It may also function as a participial adjective in attributive position, describing a noun as having been consumed, for example getrunkenes Wasser (water that has been drunk) or getrunkene Getränke (drunk beverages). The attributive form changes for gender and number, so neuter singular is getrunkenes Wasser, plural is getrunkene Getränke, and so on.

Usage notes: as a past participle, getrunken agrees with the noun when used attributively and typically remains unchanged in non-attributive uses with the auxiliary haben. In passive constructions, the verb form can appear with werden (das Getränk wird getrunken; das Getränk ist/getränkt worden), but the active perfect is far more common in everyday speech.

Etymologically, getrunken follows the standard German pattern of ge- + verb stem + -en, akin to other past participles formed from weak or mixed verbs. It is a core element of German tense construction and descriptive phrasing related to drinking.